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The Sustrans proposals for Picardy Place/Leith Street

Also possible that Edinburgh councilors don't want the town to have a public square where crowds can gather for some reason.

I imagine that Henderson Worldwide Whatevers are fairly set on there not being some sort of public space here that isn't their own private fiefdom. They have set their sights on this space being purely to funnel paying punters in and out of their glittering shopping palace to the detriment of all else. And they have money, lots of it, and the council has none.

Accepting the prize, de Rijke praised the other nominees, saying: "You've all done fine buildings, but it seems that this year what really captured the imaginations was not doing one - in favour of making public space."

"
And, as if all this wasn’t enough, the emergency brakes have been applied to the remodeling of the Picardy Place junction because the minority administration is running scared of the cycling lobby and the Greens, without whose support their programme will come to nothing"

Imagine, all those years ago, Michael Faraday having to be ever so careful when handling his inventions, for fear of touching the wrong piece of equipment and blowing it (or himself) up, or even just getting a nippy shock. Then someone comes along and invents a piece of wire surrounded with something that doesn't conduct electricity; we could call it an 'insulator'. Then before you know it, everyone and their dog gets all casual about making electricity because they know that for the most part they won't get zapped.

For as long as you're not exposed to your immediate environment, you're not overly minded to concern yourself with it.

If you have suspension, you don't care so much about potholes as you did when you rode a rigid bike. If you have a ballpoint pen, you don't care so much about smearing your handwriting (unless you're a leftie) as you did when you had a fountain pen. If you have brick walls, you don't care so much about the elements as when you were trying to sleep in your tent in a howling wet gale on the wrong side of a wall in Snowdonia in summer.

The All-Powerful Handwriting Lobby campaigns for faster drying ink and pen nibs that work at odd angles, because these are everyday issues that affect people who don't have biros. The All-Powerful Camping Lobby campaigns to have walls built on the other side of the grass because those people recognise that not everyone can afford a brick wall, and many people enjoy erecting a dwelling without having to pay for building materials.

NOT P Pl, but shows that SG can get involved when it feels like it (my bold) -

“

Ms Sturgeon said: “We’ve been engaging with the council on this matter. I do think it will want to reflect that these centres of excellence allow young people the opportunity to receive expert tuition in their specialism, in this case music. It is very valuable - there is plenty evidence of that. I’m sure its importance is something the council is reflecting on very carefully.”

The proposals are backed by the New West End Company, which represents some 600 retailers in the area. More than 3.5 million people visit Oxford Street each week, and the Bond Street, Oxford Street and Regent Street area contributes about £7.6bn each year to the UK economy. Its chief executive, Jace Tyrrell, said: “Removing the wall of red buses from Oxford Street will reduce congestion and improve air quality.”

“

Edinburgh isn’t about to get a new tube line (massive transport subsidies don’t travel too far from London) but getting the traders to back more pedestrianisation (and fewer buses on Princes Street) should be possible.

Apparently, the RSO (RSO/17/13) is to be re-advertised, this time along with the companion TRO.

This is expected to happen next week and all commenters/objectors will get a heads-up when this happens.

Additionally, Sweco have been asked to publish the masterplan for the area so everyone has clarity into all the plans.

The reasons for the re-advertisement are that 1) there were some errors in the RSO plans, and 2) clearly a lot of people have objected in part because they can't see how everything fits together. They hope that the plans in the TRO and the masterplan will help people understand what's going on.

I'm not sure if this means we will all have to resubmit our objections!